Wednesday, October 31, 2007

futbol frenzy

costa ricans, like most countries south of the border are nutty for soccer. its on little junked out televisions with any kind of rabbit ears coming out the top that will provide enough reception to yell for their favorite team. our little village, ojochal, is no different in its enthusiasm. the second evening of our living here brought us across a night game between ojochal and a neighboring community. although, the town has sporatic electricity through out most of it, the field was lit up with cheap lights on telephone poles. there is also a smaller covered field, so practice can still happen despite the rain...another testament to their love of the game. so we yelled for ojochal along with the drunks under the shelter that's set up between the field and the town grocery. this seems to be most hoppin' joint in town. at any hour after sundown, you will see a steady stream of jovial men(only men) moving between the grocery store buying pilsen or imperial(the only two beers that exist in costa rica- for they are costa rican beers) and the rain shelter. bikes, motorcycles, 4wheelers, trucks, and rubber boots are pulled up beside this odd little social mecca, rain or shine.after our ojochal's noble loss, we were headed up the winding,muddy, hole- filled road that leads to our house. our head lights came upon a place in the road that was extra messy and a hand came up followed, weakly, by a head. luckily the condition of the roads are so poor you are forced to move slowly because there was no other way of seeing this man lying inthe mud in the dark. through jake's spanish and both of our support, we surmised this dude had broken his ankle inthe dark and was waiting inthe middle of the road for his friend's to return. he was mad with pain as we got him off to the side. a truck load of partying soccerplayers came by and tried to help only to be pushed away(rudely i thought) by this guy's "friends" who had shown up. they quickly loaded him in and drove off into the night. we followed soon after. the hill is now affectionately called hill of the broken leg. another night in the life.